November 18, 2008

November 17, 2008

Epstein to Retire in 2010, but Will Continue Teaching at Chicago and NYU

My colleague Richard Epstein--who has been on phased retirement for several years now, teaching in the falls at NYU as a visiting professor, and then teaching in the Spring at Chicago as well as serving as a permanent Fellow at the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto in the Winter--will conclude the phased retirement from Chicago officially in 2010, but continue with the same divided schedule under new titles: he will take up a professorship at NYU (where he will continue to teach fall semesters) and continue teaching at Chicago thereafter as a Senior Lecturer in the Spring (as well as continuing on at the Hoover Institution). The Chicago press release is here. This works out happily for Richard (who gets one of those famed NYC apartments that NYU periodically doles out [Richard's adult children live in NYC]) and for us (since he will continue to teach at Chicago [where he's actually just bought a new apartment as well], notwithstanding the conclusion of his phased retirement). (Epstein is the second distinguished senior scholar that NYU has hired after their retirement from another top law school--NYU hired Arthur Miller [civil procedure] a couple of years ago after his retirement from Harvard. I would like to strongly urge both NYU and Northwestern to continue their practice of hiring Chicago faculty upon their retirement for at least 25 more years!)

November 14, 2008

University of Texas School of Law Sets $200 Million Campaign Goal!

(One small inaccracy in the article: NYU did not rank in the 30s in the 1970s--it was always in the top 15, sometimes the top ten: see, e.g., here. On the other hand, it is certainly true that while John Sexton was the public face of NYU's improvement in the 1990s, Sager was the 'brains,' i.e., a key player in identifying the faculty a school with aspirations should be hiring.)

November 12, 2008

National Jurist Ranks the Top Law Schools for "Public Interest" Work

November 10, 2008

Chicago Phone System Screwed Up Today

If you need to reach me or colleagues today (or our excellent Bigelows on the teaching market, I should add!), a better bet may be e-mail, since our voice mail system in particular seems not to be working. We are "upgrading" the phone system, which today at least appears to mean making it irregular and unpredictable!

UPDATE (1 pm CST): The voicemail system appears to be working again here.

Autoadmit Updates: "Two subpoenas away"

I haven't written about the Autoadmit lawsuit in awhile, but there have been some developments worth noting briefly. I'll post them, below the fold, with a warning to readers that I am going to quote some of the words of the loathsome defendants to make clear what's at issue in this case.

Among Mr. Ryan's contributions to the marketplace of ideas were the observation that one of the female Yale Law Students who is now suing her Autoadmit harassers is "a silicon tit'd [sic] whore," whose father (who had allegedly been convicted of a crime many years earlier) "g[a]ve blowjobs at Sing Sing for the protein"--indeed, as Mr. Ryan explained in a comment directed at the female law student: "Here's a hint you stupid fucking cunt: [performing oral sex is] a daily routine for your felon faggot father." Well, that does clear things up. While the harassment of this woman was at its peak, Mr. Ryan also let it be known that, "I'm doing cartwheels knowing this stupid Jew bitch is getting her self esteem raped."

Hopefully Mr. Ryan's parents will secure for him appropriate mental health counselling to help him cope with his anger, misogyny, and lack of basic empathetic capacities. They have already secured an attorney to try to represent him in light of his probable negligent and/or intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Another individual has outed himself as among the participants in the Autoadmit cesspool. Ryan Mariner of Atlanta (who is reported to be a law student at Fordham), has identified himself on the grounds that he "did nothing wrong" in posting about his desire to join a "gang bang" of one of the plaintiffs (I'll spare readers the further details and context: see paragraph 42 of the complaint for the details) and is now moving to dismiss, even though there seems to be a clear question for the trier of fact about whether or not his statements constitute intentional and/or negligent infliction of emotional distress, which is why, ironically, his own brief devotes its longest sub-sections to these allegations. I guess we'll find out if a court agrees.

Finally, one of the Autoadmit sociopaths has, it appears, ponied up for his bad behavior and so will be spared lifetime disgrace for his involvement in one of the most notorious Cyberspace cesspools of our time. The other defendants should take note that the only comment attributed to this defendant was the following: “I wonder if [DOE II’s] titties (along with all the slutting out she’s been doing) are going to affect her back later in life? Hopefully it doesn’t have an impact on her reverse cowgirl, which I have heard from several people is incredible.Until you get the clap.” I guess an actual lawyer, as opposed to the delusional and infantile morons on Autoadmit, advised his client that he wasn't going to fare well explaining this lovely item to a jury.

Blogging and Tenure, Redux

And congratulations to Bill Henderson (Indiana/Bloomington)! He is, by my lights, the single most informative and substantive law blogger out there. (I confess, of course, to not following some of the specialized law blogs at all--I imagine there are some very good ones.)